


True Love and Friendship

by Zenna_Crell47



Series: Old FanFictions [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: AU, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Link has it, Link talks!, Not Canon Compliant, PTSD, but you're there to help!, complete with extended ending, not set in any one timeline, poor boy doesn't have it easy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-15 00:22:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17518664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zenna_Crell47/pseuds/Zenna_Crell47
Summary: When you're best friends with the Hero of Hyrule, things are bound to get a little angsty. Link suffers in silence to the rest of the world, though you have become his solace. But who saves the Hero?For those interested, there's an extended ending in the second chapter to give it a happier note!Part of a collection of writings I've written and originally posted on other sites. Formats have been changed to suit my current style of writing, but the content remains otherwise unchanged.This one was originally posted Feb 8, 2015 on deviantART.





	1. When All Hope is Lost

Being best friends with the Hero of Hyrule was no easy feat.  
  
Beyond the usual separation issues, where he might be gone for anywhere between a week and seven months, there was his own barriers that often revived every time he left your home to continue adventuring, continue keeping Hyrule safe from the forces of evil.  
  
Sometimes, he would come back and be as attached to you as if he were bound to you at the hip. Other times, he would keep a steady distance between yourself and himself, as if he were afraid that being near you would bring ill fate to you, or you would break into a million pieces if he so much as looked you in the eyes. But there remained one consistency between his returns.  
The haunted look in his eyes.  
  
As the Hero of Hyrule, he had seen and done many things that the average Hylian could never dream of accomplishing or beholding. As such, he had looked Evil in the eye and made off with its head many times, but that didn't make the job any easier. Half the time, he was on a rescue mission for Princess Zelda's welfare. (Honestly, you questioned the Castle's security and competence every time you heard about Zelda being kidnapped - **again.** ) The other half was eradicating the remains of the darkness leftover from the reign - or near-reign - of the dark being Ganondorf. He had obliterated many a dark, twisted creation; many a foul beast set on the destruction of Hyrule and her people had fallen to his righteous blade.  
  
Whenever he came back to the village, his adopted home, you did your absolute best to help the Hero forget his troubles and fears before he left for the next adventure. This didn't always go according to plan, and more often than not, he and you ended up laughing at your own failure before cleaning up your mess and letting yourselves relax. And that was part of why you two remained such good friends - you were always able to make him laugh, one way or another!  
  
Seeing Link in parades and celebrations in CastleTown made him often feel very distant, especially after a great victory or the return of the Princess to her castle, but having him smiling, laughing beside you as you shared the most humiliating and silly stories about your time apart? Those were the times where you wished you could freeze time.   
  
The Hero of Hyrule was positively angelic, you believed. Like an avenging archangel, he always returned triumphant, but the times he seemed the most human were the times he spent with you, curled up in front of your fireplace, smiling up at you as you sang little ditties and tunes just to hear his sweet laughter...  
  
You wished you could see those moments more often.  
  
~  
  
Link returned in the rain, this time. His spirit seemed to drag as he made his way through the curtain of moisture, carving his footprints in the muddy ground with each step through the village paths. You had been finishing washing the dishes when you heard a half-hearted knock at your front door. Curious to know what creature would be brave enough to walk through the storm, you gasped when you saw the state your friend stood.   
  
"Link? Is that you?" you whispered disbelievingly.  
  
"Yes, it's me. Can I come in?" he supplied, slight despair tinting his voice a richer tone than normal.  
  
Your mouth partially agape, you stood aside to let the Hero enter your humble home, watching him carefully remove his hood and wring out his hat before turning back to you. You gasped and brought your hands to your face when you noticed an ugly scar marring his brow, nicking down from just above his left eyebrow and stretching out halfway down his cheek. Despite yourself, you found it mildly attractive  on his face, but the melancholic gleam in his eyes immediately hushed those thoughts.  
  
You brought a hand up to touch his face, stroking his cheek with your thumb. You searched his gaze for a sign of life, but that spark that was always, ALWAYS there - no matter how hard he had been roughened up - was gone. It was as if all the light had fled from his eyes, leaving dull, empty shells in its stead.   
  
"Link..." you murmured softly.  
  
He leaned into your touch, placing his own, calloused hand atop your soft one. His eyes closed in what might have been bliss, had he not been so broken inside. "... There were so many... So many monsters, so many people I couldn't save..." His voice got harder to understand the more his throat tightened. His face twisted in pure agony, and tears began to leak from the corners of his closed eyes. "What kind of a Hero can't save anyone?! I couldn't even move when they took the children and..."  
  
He was breaking down, and your heart went to him. Just as he seemed to collapsing under the weight of it all, you hauled him over to the fireplace, built up the flames to furnace-like proportions, and made him sit there with a blanket around his shoulders while you made him something warm to drink. It was all you could think to do. You had no real clue of the torment he went through each time he left the village from another adventure, and his misery was so raw and unbridled that you feared for his mental stability. Your mind whirred with ways you could possibly cheer him up, but none of them seemed appropriate for the situation. Making him laugh seemed like the worst thing to try at the moment, actually. It was then you figured that the best thing you could do for now was to listen to him, let him devolve as much he needed, but be ready to build him back up as soon as possible.  
  
You couldn't stand the thought of seeing your beloved so down-trodden.  
  
Link accepted the offering of your favorite warm beverage graciously, allowing you to fuss over him for a time while he nursed the mug. In the end, he wore the thin undergarments of his uniform, shivering occasionally under the thick blanket while you set his tunic and breeches aside to dry as much as they possibly could in the dampness. When you returned, Link had set aside the mug, now empty, and was staring into the flames.  
  
You weren't sure you liked the way he was staring at the fire. It was almost as if he was yearning to enter the fire and become as the ash that fluttered in the air before resting once more among the cinders. You then sat by his side and commanded him to tell you everything. You hoped that a "purging" of the event might help to soothe his soul, but you weren't too sure. Maybe reopening fresh wounds might be bad in this situation...  
  
But you listened. You listened as he recounted the terrors he faced, how he had been captured in a moment of weakness and made to watch as the monsters either consumed or tortured their other captives as they pleased, making him take part in their sick games of life and death. It wasn't until he was strong enough to do much that the monsters began to reveal their most vile natures. It was too vile even for him to recount without breaking down, so you pushed him to continue, touching only lightly on the atrocities the beasts committed. With a shudder to shake the dead out from their slumber, Link told you how he finally escaped with barely more than his wits and the Master Sword, on the eve of another "great feast" the beasts held regularly. And knowing them, they would have made it all the more macabre for their frustration. He finally vanquished the horde with their games, poisoning their water supply and watching them slowly fade into the ether. There were no survivors from the village of five hundred strong he was supposed to have been saving.  
  
For as many hours as he had spent telling you his tale, you spent double assuring and comforting the Hero as best you could, assuring and reassuring him that there was nothing else he could have done, that he had done everything that he could, and that the Goddesses would bless him for his bravery, and punish the vile creatures that had forced him into exercising his shard of Courage. But you knew that he still didn't believe you, no matter how hard you tried to tell him.  
  
That night, the storm worsened.  
  
You awoke to soft cries of agony. Shocked into recognition, you scurried from your bed and into the living room. There, you found Link dangerously close to the dying flames and burning coals of the fire. He was tossing and turning in his sleep, dreaming - no doubt - about the horrors he saw and reliving them. With a soft cry of your own, you shoved the Hylian man farther away from the fire, nearly roasting your heels in the process, and shaking him into wakefulness.  
  
"Link! _Link!_ Wake up! You're dreaming, you're dreaming," you sobbed, wishing you could change the past.  
  
Link surged into alertness with a ragged gasp, his face wet and his limbs freezing. When his eyes alighted on your face, he didn't immediately recognize you. But then you watched the last grips of the night-terror leave his face, and you were still left with the eyes of a stranger. A broken stranger. He rasped your name in a hoarse whisper as he woke. He clutched the hem of your nightgown needily, some panic returning to his expression as he remembered both event and dream alike. "... Don't leave me here alone...   
  
"...I don't think I'll ever be able to care for anything, ever again, knowing that it all could be ripped away from me in an instant. I will never love anyone."  
  
You looked into his face. You gazed into his distant eyes. You held his hand, clutching it close to your own, screaming heart. But that was the only way you could let him know. You loved him.


	2. Love Always Wins (Happy End)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The extended ending -- the happy ending

You held him in your arms the rest of the night, hushing his whimpers like you would with a spooked animal or a small child whenever the thunder crashed and lightning cracked.   
  
When dawn let her rosy cheeks be seen on the horizon, Link finally relaxed and drifted off into true slumber. Exhausted, you lay next to him, allowing your eyes to droop and your body to relax as well. Yawning, you fell into slumber so deep you couldn't dream.  
  
Morning came late to your home that day. You woke up with Link's arms around your waist, his face nuzzled into your hair and neck. Despite the wrench your heart experienced upon seeing his peaceful face - the only peace he was likely to see for a long, long time - you couldn't help yourself when your fingers began to trace patterns on his face. You lightly touched on the new, dashing scar on his brow, wishing this heartfelt moment would never end.  
  
Then, as naturally as if you'd been saying it your whole life, you whispered, "No matter what, my dearest, beloved Link, I will always love you. Even if you cannot love anyone, I will always love you."  
  
Link's ocean-hued eyes soared open, and you struggled to be released from his embrace, embarrassed and ashamed. But his grip only tightened, regret painting his expression something a little lighter. "... I spoke rashly last night, and it seems that you took my words to heart." Link looked you in the eyes. With a dull gasp, you noted that some small spark had returned to his gaze, and it was warm and bright - if faint. But that was all Link. Your Link.  
  
You snuggled deeper into his embrace, letting him stroke down your back briefly before sitting the both of you up. "Darling, I love you too. I always have. But I have become so... _jaded_ to all things beautiful and pure when I've been so submerged in darkness and corruption. Can you forgive a jaded fool?"  
  
You got up on your knees to envelop him in your arms, letting your warmth seep into the coldness of not only his body, but his heart. "Of course," you replied, stroking his hair and long ears lovingly. "Because no matter what, you will be my fool. And I love you, Link. With all my heart."  
  
Tears of joy choked the Hero of Hyrule, as he smiled into your ear, "Thank you, my love. Thank you."


End file.
